Graphite drawings on canvas, metallic structure, fluorescent tubes, 2013. 400 x 275 x 210 cm

The word pavilion derives from the Latin Papilio (butterfly) and originally described a light but sumptuous construction made out of sticks and fabric, erected near a battlefield. Pavilion was later used as the name for a temporary shelter set up in a garden or a park, or a larger building dedicated to a specific activity in a hospital, prison or exhibition complex. In French, the use of the word pavilion also relates to the cheap standard houses, which started to be built in large numbers during the 1960s. This use of the word evokes the modesty of its original meaning (light structure, small size) but also denotes a hint of flattery, lending the term an ironic dimension.
The set up of the installation, consisting of a row of eight graphite drawings hung one after the other on a metallic structure, recalls the 19th century paper theaters, yet on a much larger scale. The drawings depict views of constructed spaces, all representations of domestic habitats (even though this is sometimes cast into doubt). All the images originated in found photos, put online by amateurs in order to show the state of construction work.
These spaces can be seen from the front, through the cut outs made into every drawing and from the sides. They are all shown as bare arrangements of walls, floors, ceilings and stairs. Deprived of any furniture or objects, they appear to be quite inhospitable.
Domesticity with its associations of privacy and comfort, and its reverse side (the politics of control) are put into question here. Butterfly is forming part of a series of works that constitute an ongoing project: this project aims to investigate the subject of home confinement with electronic monitoring, focussing in particular on issues of space, architecture and sociology. A fictional development will also be created in relation to a novel by Leo Perutz, that itself was the subject of an unrealised film adaptation by F.W. Murnau.